Jade Island, located in a strip mall on Staten Island, is a Chinese restaurant with plenty of tiki details. The dining room has some bamboo-framed booths, with pufferfish and tiki lamps, and backlit tropical scenes. Drinks are served in tiki mugs. There is a small waterfall fountain, and several tikis that are unfortunately painted in primary colors. The bar has a pointed bamboo overhang, and tapa cloth on the wall behind the bar.

How to find it:

Jade Island is in the same strip mall as a K-Mart. The restaurant has a green lighted sign.

So I finally made it to Jade Island a few weeks ago. I had seen Anthony Bourdain go there on his show, and knowing it was one of the few original tiki restaurants left in the NYC area, I rented a car on a slow day and took a drive to check it out. After paying the annoyingly high $15 toll for a bridge to take me from Brooklyn (gasp) to Staten Island (double gasp!), I arrived at Jade Island. A cool vintage look from the outside (and in a strip mall), I went inside. I was pleasantly surprised by the vintage, untouched decor and promptly took a booth, pulled the waiter aside and asked for a Pina Colada. No Hawaiian shirts here, and more annoyingly was the music they played in the background. If I wanted to listen to Nickelback, I would have bought a house in the suburbs, had kids, bought a minivan and given up. So sadly, no tiki music was playing. But the pina colada came in a nice tiki mug and we ordered a mixture of chinese food. There were no polynesian specialties on the menu. I will say I do not go to these places for the food at all, but it was not good here. I still would come back, to support them in keeping the institution open, or maybe have cocktails, but pass on much of the menu. The interior was cool, all original and you could see it once was the refuge for many work a day Staten Island families. Definitely worth 1 trip, but unlike a Michelin 3 star, do not go out of your way. I give it a 5/10.